1/25/2024

GIS Development

Importance of GIS data

• GIS is different than most applications

• Word processing, Spreadsheets… are entirely dependent on input of data

• GIS users nearly always require reference map data (e.g., streets,

boundaries) that are maintained by others

• As GIS users, we rely heavily on “external” data sources

Data has to be shared

1
 1/25/2024

Evolution of Data Sharing

Evolution of Data Sharing

Distributed GIS
(via web services)

Downloading Data
Matu rity

Media Distribution
(“ ftp”)

Shared Diskspace

Time

Issue with Sharing methods

• Getting all the data
• Format
• Coordinate System/Projection
• File Size
• Bandwidth

Typically requires data manipulation prior to use

(reformatting, reprojecting, clipping, etc.)

2
 1/25/2024

Distributed GIS Model

GIS DATA
Vector Data
• Point Data
• Line Data
• Polygon Data

Raster Data
• Also known as grid data, is made up of pixels, and each pixel has a value

3
 1/25/2024

Standalone VS Web-GIS

1. Standard desktop apps QGIS

2. OGC web services like WMS that allow visualize this data in a web
browser

Map Structure

4
 1/25/2024

Map With A Single Layer

Mapfile Structure
MAP Object
LAYER Object
CLASS Object
STYLE Object

Spatial Databases

5
 1/25/2024

Shapefiles are a decent transportation format

Why Bother with a Spatial Database?

 Data security: File may get corrupt

 Speed: better performance out of data served from a database than you will
from a shapefile

 Multiuser support: Spatial data is shared among many users

 Querying: spatial databases allow you to perform spatial queries (“Show

me all points that fall within a 20 mile radius of this point”)

Mostly used for vector data

Examples

PostgreSQL with PostGIS extension (Open source)

Microsoft SQL Server
MySQL

Importing/exporting Data into database

1.ogr2ogr hawaii.shp PG:dbname=g4wd -sql "select name, the_geom from us_states where
name='Hawaii'"

2. shp2pgsql -s <SRID> <SHAPEFILE> <TABLENAME>

3. shp2pgsql—pgsql2shp

6
 1/25/2024

Creating data
CREATE TABLE geometries (name varchar, geom geometry);

INSERT INTO geometries VALUES

('Point', 'POINT(0 0)');

INSERT INTO geometries VALUES

('Linestring', 'LINESTRING(0 0, 1 1, 2 1, 2 2)');

INSERT INTO geometries VALUES

('Polygon', 'POLYGON((0 0, 1 0, 1 1, 0 1, 0 0))');

A database index: Rather than having to do a sequential scan

of each record in a table, it just refers to the index.

create unique index us_states_pk_index on us_states (gid);

Spatial Index:created on spatial column

create index us_states_bbox_index on us_states using gist
(the_geom);

Spatial Queries:
we can ask questions like Intersects,Touches, Crosses, Within,
Overlaps, and Contains

select name from us_states where

within(GeomFromText('Point(-104.98716 39.73909)' , 4269),
the_geom);

7
 1/25/2024

Web GIS

Basic Web Page Operation

Request

Response
(HTML document)

8
 1/25/2024

Web Service Operation Web Server

Client (Listening for requests)
1. Creates XML Request
2. Request sent to web
service
Longitude: -73.3
456 Latitude: 42.2753

6. Response sent to client

3. Receives request and parses XML
7. Receives response and parses 4.4. Calls the function

5. 5. Creates response XML with results

Basic operation of Web GIS

9
 1/25/2024

OGC Web Services

Web Map Service (WMS
• Web Map Service Interface Standard (WMS) provides a simple HTTP interface for requesting geo-registered
map images from one or more distributed geospatial databases. A WMS request defines the geographic
layer(s) and area of interest to be processed. The response to the request is one or more geo-
registered map images (returned as JPEG, PNG, etc) that can be displayed in a browser
application.

Web Feature Service (WFS)

• The WFS operations support INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, LOCK, QUERY and DISCOVERY operations
on geographic features using HTTP as the distributed computing platform. It is the function of a web
feature service, in its interaction with the data storage system used to persistently store features, to ensure
that changes to data are consistent.

Web Coverage Service (WCS)

• The OpenGIS® Web Coverage Service Interface Standard (WCS) defines a standard interface and
operations that enables interoperable access to geospatial "coverages". The term "grid coverages"
typically refers to content such as satellite images, digital aerial photos, digital elevation data, and other
phenomena represented by values at each measurement point. It is designed to simplify remote access to
coverages, commonly known as raster maps in GIS.

Web GIS Components WebGIS Components

Client:
• Internet Browser such as Internet Explore, Mozila firefox etc
Internet Connection:
• Performance of a web mapping site largely depends on the
bandwidth of the Internet connection
• Higher the bandwidth better the performance
Web server
• Handle the requests from Web Browser (user) and Return the
web page
• Apache, IIS
Meta Data
• Data about data
• Including Server URL, Owner etc

10
 1/25/2024

Web GIS Components

Web Map Server
• The Map Server is the engine behind the maps you see on a web page
• The Map Server needs to be configured to communicate between the web server and assemble data layers into an
appropriate image

• WMS stands for Web mapping Server

• WMS Servers can generate maps on request, using parameters, such as map layer order, styling/symbolization, map
extent, data format, projection, etc.

• The OGC Consortium defined the WMS standard to define the map requests and return data formats

• Typical image formats for the map result are PNG, JPEG, GIF or SVG Examples
1. MapServer
2. ESRI ArcGIS
3. GeoServer

THANKS

11